The Boston Tea Party

Illustration: "Indians" tossing chests of tea into Boston Harbor.

On the night of December 16, 1773, some 60 Americans disguised as Indians boarded 3 cargo ships in the Boston harbor. Waving hatchets and yelling war hoops, the noisy "Mohawks" took 342 tea chests from the holds of the ships and threw them into the water.

Americans had long been angry about a tax on all tea sold in the colonies that the British imposed in 1767. Then, in 1773, the British Parliment passed the Tea Act, which kept the hated tax and also gave one company, the British East India Company, the right to sell tea in the colonies at special low prices. Americans feared that colonial merchants would be forced out of business. Patriot leaders in Boston, led by Samuel Adams and john hancock, were determined to keep the British from selling tea there. So they planned the "Boston Tea Party."
News of the Tea Party was applauded by many colonists. But the British were furious. As punishment thay passed the Boston Port Act, which forbade any ships from trading in Boston until the colonists paid for the tea that had been destroyed. The Boston Tea Act, the Boston Tea Party, and the Boston Port Act were 3 important steps leading to the American Revolution. Angry New Englanders began preparing for war against the British.

DID YOU KNOW....The 342 chests of tea dumped overboard at the Boston Tea Party were worth half a million dollars in today's money. That's a lot of tea.

If you would like to know more about the Boston Tea Party visit this informative site.

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